Task Name: Journey to the Hidden Village
Tier: 2
NPC or PC: NPC
Location: East Blue: Shimotsuki Village
Crew, Team, or Personal: Personal
Description: After the defeat of Master Roshi, Jackson's next stop is a Master known as Sarutobi that lives in the legendary Shimotsuki Village. Almost immediately after entering the village, Jackson finds himself attacked by people that can only be classified as "ninjas".
Enemy Details: 30 T0 Ninjas
Boss: No

It had been quite the journey, but Jackson had finally made his way to what seemed to be a remote island. Almost as instantly as he'd made it ashore he began to wonder if he'd taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque...wherever that was.

Even though Jackson had a few doubts about the island he'd landed on, he didn't exactly have much time to really think about if he should stay or go. At the moment, a strong storm was brewing, and he didn't exactly feel as though he should be swimming in it. Even if this was the wrong island, he felt as though he should make camp somewhere and try to keep dry while getting some rest. Jackson began to make his way through the brush and forest of the island. The rain and thunder provided ample distraction as he continued to press through the thick brush of the forest. Though Jackson usually never liked to travel through weather such as this, there was something about this storm that seemed soothing. Somehow he took his mind off of everything else and he was able to continue traveling without stress or any other outside worries.

Soon enough he could see in the distance there appeared to be a lush clearing of land. Making his way out of the forest, he now set foot out into the plains. They seemed to go on forever to the point where would could almost forget that this was an island. The vastness of this island was truly spectacular. As he continued to walk, the sound of thunder grew louder and louder, almost to the point where it was completely deafening. He continued to walk until he came upon a hill on the plains. He began to ascend it, as as he reached the top, almost directly below in the valley he witnessed the sight of the very place he'd been searching for all along - Shimotsuki Village.

It took a couple of hours to reach the valley below, given that Jackson had to travel through a storm as well as thick woods and underbrush. He hadn't expected that the village of Shimotsuki would be protected by nature in such a way, but he figured it made sense. Shimotsuki was known as "Little Wano" and given how mysterious and isolated the Wano Kingdom was, it almost made complete sense that this village would be naturally protected in this manner. Because of this, Jackson began to feel a bit apprehensive when it came to the point of how they'd deal with his presence here. He'd heard little about this island in general, but he wasn't sure of how they reacted to those visiting from the outside - or exactly how they felt when those "visitors" were fishmen. There weren't many times that Jackson found himself having to deal with racism due to his half fishman lineage, but there were indeed times that he wasn't welcomed in many areas because of this.

Jackson had only recently been briefed about the attacks in each Blue at the hand of the Yonko known as Oceanus, and the Fishmen that he manipulated, so he could faintly understand their attitudes and their apprehensiveness when it came to the arrival of another Fishman. He could only hope that they'd simply allow him a chance to let himself be known by them personally, and that he could soon change their minds when it came to their initial perception of fishmen.

Equality wouldn't come as long as people continued to fear those that they didn't understand; and by allowing people to see that Fishmen were individuals as much as humans are considered individuals, they'd understand that the Fishmen that they've run into don't represent their race as a whole. Things like this sounded idealistic, but it was an ideal that Jackson wouldn't deter from.

Soon enough, Jackson found himself within the village of Shimotsuki. Everything ranging from the vibe, buildings, and the people seemed completely foreign to Jackson. There was an air of culture and civility that Jackson hadn't experienced on many of his travels. The people that noticed him greeted him quite warmly, some even making their way to shake his hand and welcome him. A few even began to direct him towards a nearby restaurant.

Not being able to ignore the growling of his stomach, Jackson decided to acquiesce to their wishes and he made his way inside of the restaurant before he took a seat at one of the tables in the back. One thing that Jackson made notice of was how empty this restaurant was in particular. Had the other patrons finished their meals and departed a bit before he'd arrived? After taking a seat, a woman silently made her way towards the table and placed a menu on the table. Looking up at her for a second, Jackson noticed he couldn't see a name tag or anything that would give him an idea of what her name was. As he thought about this, the woman looked at him with a cold glare and then walked off just as silently as she approached. It was an odd occurrence, given how warm and inviting all the other civilians in this town acted. Jackson began to assume that maybe she was having a bad day, and he soon let this go as he then redirected his eyes downwards and began to read through the menu.

Jackson's attention within the cafe had been almost entirely wrapped up in the menu. This island in particular came off as completely foreign to him. He'd never seen one such as this, but he merely chalked it up to not being as traveled as many others. There was still so much of this world that he needed to explore, and happening upon this island merely reinforced this ideal. Even though he'd initially though he'd conquered the menu and find whatever it was that he wanted to order, the newness of it all caught him off guard and he found himself intrigued by the other multiple descriptions on the menu. Because his attention had been so taken in by this menu, he hadn't noticed that the waitress from before had placed a cup of tea in front of him, or that an attractive female had decided to take a seat next to him, at least until she cleared her throat. It had been an obvious attempt to gain his attention, and given her proximity to Jackson it managed to break him out of the trance had put him in.

Jackson's eyes glanced over into the woman's direction, and as they did so the woman began to speak in a sultry tone.

"I've never seen you around here before. You new here?"

"Umm, yes. This is my first time here."

One thing that Jackson never quite picked up on is when he was being flirted with. With the pressure he put on himself to focus on things other of relationships and courting, he simply never gained much of a capacity for flirting or recognizing when someone else was doing the flirting. In Jackson's eyes, she was merely asking obvious questions that would only be responded to with obvious answers. All in all, Jackson felt as though this exchange would be a waste of time - but he decided against being rude and continued to humor the woman.

"I see. It's not often that a cute tourist comes around, what brings you here?"

"There's a man I'm supposed to me-"

"Oh, so you're here on business?"

Jackson was a bit taken aback from how forward the woman was. Before he could even finish his replies she was already moving onto the next question. This was slowly beginning to feel as if it were a bit more than a simple conversation, and was slowly devolving into an interrogation. Having quickly glanced to his side due to the awkwardness, Jackson had finally noticed the tea that had been placed on the table by the waitress, yet, before he could act by taking the cup in hand he noticed the quick sleight of hand that the woman made use of. She'd poured something into the drink - the contents of which Jackson was quite unaware of. However, the simple act was way more than enough to warrant suspicion and luckily the woman wasn't aware that he'd seen the slip up. This allowed Jackson to play things a bit more defensively as far as his conversation with the woman went. He needed to separate himself from her as quickly as possible, as he was sure there'd likely be more involved with her plot.

"I apologize, but I should get going. I didn't realize it would take so long for me make sense of this menu, I'm going to be late."

Jackson laughed a bit in order to add a bit of levity to the situation while also keeping the woman calm and not alerting her that anything was amiss. The woman quickly reached out and grabbed a hold of his wrist as he attempted to stand up from his seated position.

"Oh, c'mon. I'm sure whoever you're supposed to meet won't mind if you're a little late. Here, drink a bit and relax, I promise I'll be great company."

The desperation this woman was exhibited in attempting to complete whatever goal she had was extremely obvious; Jackson knew that any further attempt to separate himself from her and this situation would set off alarm bells, yet, there was no other option.

"I'm sorry, but I really do have to go."

With a quick tug, Jackson was able to liberate his wrist from the woman's grasp. She seemed to be a bit taken aback by this action, but the look of surprise on her face soon turned into a scowl. Just then, the sound of a blade slicing the air sounded out and just as Jackson ducked, the edges of three shuriken sank into the wall behind him.

"I told you, your way would have never worked. These types only respond to force."

Glancing upwards, Jackson was able to catch the sight of a male standing at a distance of about ten meters from both himself and the woman next to him. Due to the chef clothing that was worn by the male, and the fact that Jackson had seen him briefly before sitting down at his table it was obvious what all of this was, and with more of "employees" of this restaurant now stopping what they were doing to walk towards the back of the restaurant and towards Jackson's location, it was plainly obvious that this had all been a set up.

It must have also been obvious to all of those watching him that Jackson felt a bit nervous about the current situation. A woman had just attempted to drug him while another made had only barely missed hitting him with shuriken. This situation didn't exactly induce any emotions that would make someone calm; but regardless, the group attempted to reason with the young Fishman as he seemed to be scouting out a few of the exits in the establishment.

"Don't make this more difficult than this has to be."

The words used by his attackers weren't exactly words that would have calmed the situation down any, and if anything, made Jackson feel as though escape was a must. As they attempted to move closer, Jackson finally decided what needed to be done, and in an instant Jackson bolted to his left and then made a quick turn down a corridor that led to a back exit. The entire time that he ran, he could hear the yelling of his would-be assailants behind him and the sound of footsteps as they gave chase. The only thing that Jackson could hope for is that they hadn't stationed someone in front of the exit or outside of it. While he continued to run down the corridor, he could hear the sounds of the shuriken hitting the walls around him and sometimes even hitting the ground next to his feet, yet, he continued to run.

Once he reached the back exit, Jackson opened the door as quickly as he could before slamming it as hard as possible once through it in order to jam the door behind him. He could hear them behind the door attempting to open it, but to no avail. The only other way to get to Jackson's location was to now exit the restaurant from the front and then run around to the back. This didn't exactly give Jackson much time. He quickly gave himself an inspection. He hoped he hadn't been injured and as a result of the adrenaline that he just hadn't noticed the injury yet. With the impromptu checkup completed and it being confirmed that he hadn't been injured, Jackson began to make his way around the back as quietly as he could before leaping upwards, and grabbing hold of the railing to the balcony above where the exit into the alleyway was and began to make his way atop the building. Once on the top, he was able to look downwards and see what was going on below.

The streets that were once so busy and lively were now completely empty - save for the few civilians that were rushing to their homes and closing the doors as quickly as they could behind themselves. It seemed the entire island was going through a state of alert, and right now, whomever was chasing him was behind it. Jackson appeared to be public enemy #1, and any explaining he'd attempt would likely only fall on deaf ears. His only hope now was to escape this place as quickly as he could - his mission here would have to occur at a later date.

With this in mind, Jackson began to run once more, hopping from rooftop to rooftop while attempting to make his way back to the coast where he'd make his escape from this island.

As Jackson leapt from rooftop to rooftop, he found that he wasn't exactly as equipped for the task as he first thought he'd be. Even though he was managing, the ninjas that were giving chase behind him seemed to be entirely more skilled in these maneuvers than he was - even to the point that they'd manage to catch up with him and he'd have to fight them off briefly before continuing his escape. Though they weren't too strong, the fact that he'd have to halt his escape to fight them off was slowing him down to a point where he began to feel that he wouldn't be able to escape this place.

One thing that Jackson wanted to avoid altogether was harming these attackers too much, and killing them was simply out of the question. Whatever was going on in this country, it was obvious there was some sort of misunderstanding - and attempting to solve it with violence wasn't going to help smooth things over any better with these people. Jackson could have allowed himself to be taken into custody, but he also didn't feel as though they wouldn't decide to end his life right then and there for crimes he still wasn't aware of. For now, escaping was the best option.

With all of this going through his mind, he hadn't noticed how close the group of 17 remaining ninjas had become. Before Jackson could react, he felt a length of chain wrap around his legs that quickly locked up his movements - causing him to fall off the roof of the building he was currently on and land on the ground below. The fall wasn't a long one, but it was one that Jackson didn't exactly want to repeat again. As Jackson attempted to remove the length of chain that had wrapped around his legs, one of the ninjas landed on the ground next to him and raised a blade above his head. These men and women appeared to be playing for keeps, and killing him seemed to be their only goal, yet, before the ninja could take his swing a deep voice roared out.

"STOP!"

-Exit-